We are a product of two products!

I am intrigued, fasinated really by human behavior. People often call me judgemental because in my pursuit to understand why people do the things they do, I seem like I am judging, maybe I am!

If we could know everything about everyone we would never have to wonder why they act the way they do. We would be able to justify every action and pair it with a specific learning experience in their life. We are simply a product of two people who were influenced by their parents, who were influenced by their parents before them.....it's a chain reaction that we can't control as children but we can learn to understand as adults.

I have spent some time learning about my parents and their childhoods so that I can understand more about the choices they made in my childhood. They were great parents, still are, I am very blessed to still have them in my life. I won't go into their childhoods, although that would help you understand even further. I won't even go into specific actions that led me on this quest but one important piece is that they both have 11 brothers and sisters......family was prevalent.

Married at 18 and 19, they started a family shortly after. They moved me and my two older brothers to Maple Island from the Niagara Region was I was 18 moths old. My little sister came along a little more than a year after that. Family was everything (in a village with a population of 20)

In my quest to learn about them I learned many things that helped to explain most of the things that boggled me as a kid, teenager, grown woman. In fact, I hated them as teenagers....for bringing me to the country. Now I thank them, they gave us a great childhood. They did the best they could do with the resources they had. Yup, they made mistakes, many, but when I look at the lives they led I can understand why they did the things I didn't like, even the things I did like.

As a parent myself I now understand that how they raised us has a lot to do with how I raise my children and how I act. I also understand that parents always do what they think is right in the moment for their children. It may not be right in retrospect but love for children always fuels decisions.They also make mistakes and do things that they would never want their children to do.

I can look back and pair my parents actions with specific experiences from their childhood, I can also pair my own actions to my childhood experiences. That awareness helps me to make better decisions and to appreciate the hard work they did and never resent or regret any part of my family upbringing. It was what it was and I am who I am partly because of them. And I am thankful.